In the past, patient records, such as physician diagnoses and notes, test results, prescription forms, etc. were maintained in a physical file at the location where the patient was seen by the primary care physician. If the patient needed to see a specialist or visited an emergency room or walk-in clinic, the only way for the attending health care provider to obtain the patient's information would be to have the patient bring copies of the file or have the primary care physician's office forward the files to the attending health care provider by, for example, mail or facsimile, which of course is not necessarily an option in the emergency room. In such situations, the attending health care provider must rely on information provided by the patient or the patient's family or friends, which is subject to lapses of memory and misunderstandings of the patient's health history.
Recent advances in technology have spawned trends toward storing all types of documentation in an electronic format on databases that are accessible via local networks and the internet. However, when the issue of storing and transferring patient records in this manner is addressed several concerns have been raised by patients and the medical community. One concern is the mechanics involved in transferring physical paper records into an electronic data store. Manually entering the information is extremely tedious and time-consuming. Furthermore, many physicians are not necessarily willing to change the way that they keep their notes, which is still being done by “paper and pencil” for the most part, by entering their notes directly into the electronic data store.